First of all, I’m sorry for necro-ing this thread, but I feel like you guys deserve a reply for helping me. I’m sorry I haven’t been able to post sooner… I’ve been having a rough few months.
@KatyFernlily and @nitromon: Thank you so much!!!!!! I guess I never thought to search for Sunset Valley remakes because… well, I guess I just assumed everyone would prefer to make their own towns, since I’ve seen such gorgeous original worlds! I’ve fallen madly in love with Cottonwood Hills! It’s beautiful and quaint and I like how Martine made a variety of buildings and areas… you’ve got the industrial club district, you’ve got the quaint-but-not-cutesy shops, you’ve got that gorgeous museum/art gallery… like I said, I’m in love with it!
One of the things I know I’m going to be doing is changing some of the lot assignments. For example, the White Lion Pub is too beautiful to repel perfectionist sims (it’s currently a local watering hole)! I’ve got it set as “arcade” right now, but I haven’t really played this world yet other than setting things up.
@attuned and @Mandelyn: Yeah, but like I said, I’m stuck with Edit Town mode, since I can’t use CAW. It’s ridiculous how EA messes up things that need to be available!
There are only
some sims I’m interested in from SV, so I’m not going to use Traveler or Porter for
these sims (more on that later). I’m going to give them makeovers, take notes on things like relationships (e.g. the two youngest Bunch kids don’t like each other), and make new versions of them in CAS. I’ve already got three or so households made and moved in. I’m giving some of them radical personality makeovers, too. For example, I’ve made Bella, Michael, Simis, and Natalia (formerly Jocasta… a nice excuse to get rid of that name!!
) all witches, and Bella’s parents, Simis in particular, have a more Magic Town vibe to them.
The rest of the SV premades…. If I don’t dislike them, they can be townie fodder. I’ll give ‘em makeovers, save them to the sim bin, and recreate them in CH. Some can be co-workers (“homeless”… what would be a good way to do that for individual sims and not the whole household?), and I’ll assign some to be role sims with MasterController (Sim > Advanced > Set Service).
I’m forbidding the “inappropriate” trait from my game. From what I’ve seen, it’s not if they cheat, it’s
when they cheat. Last time, Yumi Sekemoto broke up the Keatons’ marriage. Why a young guy would accept a flirt from a weird elderly woman, I don’t know. I’ve heard the “flirty” trait works in a similar way…. My plan right not is that if I have a flirty sim who wants to settle down, I’ll change it to “hopeless romantic”.
Once I make sure the town seems to be running smoothly, I’ll try out Ani’s apartment mod. I’ve downloaded a
couple buildings that would be great for my single sims. I’ve already placed them on the border of Cottonwood Hills’ industrial district, hoping that it’ll make the visual transition from more urban-looking buildings to residential buildings smoother.
I’m also making over Hidden Springs (with ellacharmed’s fixes!) to be a vacation world with Traveler. I’m intending for there to be activities and lodging for the snooty people, stuff to interest supernaturals (witches, fairies, plantsims… I think that’s all I have so far), and stuff for “regular” people. I’m excited to have an opportunity to use Sandy’s Alpine set!!
Once I get
that set up, there are three sims (Francesca Vanderburg, Bert Alto, and homeless/townie Marcela Jimenez) that I’d like to move from Hidden Springs to Cottonwood Hills and keep their relationships, etc. Specifically, I’d like for Francesca to be able to keep in touch with her brother and invite him over once in a while. What would be the best way to do that?
I plan on using Retuner to allow more traits for babies and toddlers, 7 for kids, and 10 for teens and older. The measly amount EAxis allowed sims by default doesn’t seem like remotely enough to flesh out most sims' personalities, especially with all the traits added by expansion packs!
I’m a little confused, though:
1) Do hidden traits (e.g. “Fireproof”) count toward the new maximum? If so, is there a way around that? It wouldn’t seem fair that an unmodded game would be perfectly fine with it, IMO.
2) I think I read somewhere (goodness knows where I’d find it again) that, even with Retuner, there still might be issues when sims age up. I think they said the sim might reset, which doesn’t sound too bad, but I’d like to know other people’s experiences, if they’ve tried this.
3) This mod
here says that if a sim is awarded a bonus trait via social networking, they should decline it. Even though I don’t have that mod, would it still apply?
4) I’m assuming the bonus trait awarded from getting a degree (or an honorary degree) would work the same way? I’ve already given one to one of my sims – it didn’t feel right for a middle-aged reporter not to have one.
Thank you, everyone, for all your help and suggestions!
Hey- if you said something to me in a post and I didn't write back, I'm sorry. Sometimes I don't feel good enough to post and by the time I'm able to the thread's old enough that I feel kind of weird about bumping it just to post one or two sentences. So please don't take it personally! :)